The social-networking giant Facebook has been caught red-handed in a secret smear campaign against industry rival Google, FoxNews.com has confirmed.

According to a report from The Daily Beast Wednesday night, Facebook hired leading public-relations firm Burson-Marsteller to “pitch anti-Google stories to newspapers, urging them to investigate claims that Google was invading people’s privacy.”

When questioned early Thursday morning about these stunning allegations, Burson-Marsteller quickly backpedaled emphasizing that these kinds of campaigns go against its corporate code.

“Now that Facebook has come forward, we can confirm that we undertook an assignment for that client,” Burson-Marsteller spokesman Paul Cordasco told FoxNews.com. “Whatever the rationale, this was not at all standard operating procedure and is against our policies, and the assignment on those terms should have been declined.”

Facebook and Google both declined FoxNews.com requests for further information.

The plan backfired when Burson offered to ghostwrite for influential security blogger Christopher Soghoian, promising to draft an anti-Google op-ed criticizing a new tool called Social Circle. The PR firm promised that the piece would eventually appear on popular online websites such as The Washington Post, Politico and The Huffington Post.